Since hearing RITUAL’s EP title-track ‘The Fall’ two years ago, we've been advocating this London-based trio as one of the best alternative R&B outfits out there. With every release they hit the nail on the head, expressing sensuality essential to the R&B genre through their trap rhythms, artfully manipulated DAWs and an inescapably charming vocal which strikes the balance between lover, closest friend and your own inner-most thoughts. Newest single ‘Amen’ is a potent example of their craft. The elegant synth and piano introduction portrays a subdued passion, which teasingly reveals itself through a rising, rippling electronic percussion. The lyrics are purposefully vague and intended to be interpreted according to the listener’s own circumstances. However, listening to the trap-backed hymnal phrase, “always want you here; always want you high; have the last word”, implies a complete surrender to another. What ‘Amen’ is really about though is belief. As confirmed by RITUAL, “[the song] could mean something different for each person who hears it - but to us it's about finding something or someone to believe in, whatever or whoever that may be." At the last, almost all the instrumentation has been stripped away, leaving only the sweeping violins and a quiet contemplation of what believing in something other than ourselves means. -HT